~ Free Thinker.

The excitement and dreams about becoming wealthy.

Right if you read the last posts and survived here is something that you might just survive.

A win on the Lotto.

A large number of articles in the press and on TV news are devoted to what people are dreaming to do with the money they could win, or interviewing past winners.

Just in case there is some one reading this and they have won or happen to win I need to say I have never won anything other than a headache from a bottle of whiskey.

Here is my survival plan:

If you win it in the next drawing, you won’t ever have to worry about money again–right?

Wrong.

The first thing to do is:

A lottery ticket is a bearer instrument meaning that whoever signs the ticket and presents a photo ID can claim the prize. So if you haven’t signed the ticket and it blows out of your hand while you are waiting for a bus, or if you show it to a friend in a bar and accidentally leave it on the counter, you’ve lost the loot.

The next move:

Remain anonymous if the rules permit it.

Once people know you’re suddenly wealthy, you’ll be badgered by requests for handouts from everyone from charities to long-lost friends and relatives–not to mention all the financial “experts” who will be vying for your business. So check the rules to see whether you can dodge them all by remaining anonymous.

The next move:

You have the choice between taking the prize money all at once or having it paid out over 26 years in the form of an annuity.

If you didn’t have smart money habits up until now, you could easily turn out to be your own worst enemy by quickly squandering the fortune.

With a lump sum payment, you must immediately pay tax on the entire amount. With an annuity, you are taxed only as you receive the payments. People who have trouble controlling their spending might prefer the discipline of receiving the money as an annuity. But this payout form has other drawbacks. You will want to compare the effective yield of the annuity with what you could earn by taking the money as a lump sum, paying the taxes and investing the proceeds.

Next:

For the first six months after you win the lottery, don’t do anything drastic, like quitting your job, buying a home in the Caribbean, trading up for a luxury car or building a collection of handbags. Meanwhile, set aside a fixed amount for splurges—it’s only natural to want to celebrate your windfall. Save the big purchases for later.

Next:

There is no better investment than paying off debts.

Next:

Hand pick your own lawyer, accountant and investment adviser, and requiring them to work together.

Putting the money in safe, short-term investments and not even touching it for the first six months. Only spend income–not principal. Especially in today’s investment world, “It takes a lot of principal to generate income and once you start spending principal, the principal quickly dissipates.

Next :

Don’t buy a ticket in an office pool.

You could end up getting unwanted attention if someone believes that they are owed a share, as happened in these cases:

Office pools seem to be a one-way ticket to disaster.

Consider the nine Bell Canada call center employees who sued 19 co-workers for a share of a $50-million prize won in January 2011, claiming to have not been told that they were left out of the group. (A court ruled in their favor two years later.

Last but not least the Bad luck streaks.

Like one that befell 77-year-old Lucient Nault of Montreal — whose daughter-in-law drowned in a pool built with the winnings before his son — who was suing people he said took advantage of his father’s sudden wealth — was hit by a car while chasing a runaway dog. All of this led to Nault’s wife leaving him, make one wonder if every good fortune comes with the risk of a curse.

Windsor, Ont.: An 83-year-old man sued his wife — plus her two daughters and their spouses — after she cashed in 6/49 numbers worth $3.5-million in 2008, then initiated divorce proceedings. The owner of the Pioneer Snack Express later produced video evidence that the retired carpenter bought the ticket himself and posted a sign with a security camera photo to publicize this fact.

Cambridge, Ont.: A woman who established a long-distance relationship with a man who owned a convenience store, then later moved from Toronto to help him run the business, was dumped right after he scored a $21-million 6/49 jackpot in 2006 — violating a verbal agreement she claimed they had. Right after the win, though, the store owner opted to get back together with his wife.

Burnaby, B.C.: Fingerprints factored into a claim that a man had his $10-million winning ticket stolen by neighbours in 1992 — the result of losing a wallet and getting it back with one slip of paper removed — even though it took 11 years for an affidavit to be filed in court. The wallet-loser took over a decade to pursue the matter because he didn’t think science could help him.

Winnipeg: A home care worker unsuccessfully sued the elderly wheelchair-bound woman she looked after on the grounds that they had a verbal agreement to split any winnings. But the $11.4-million jackpot winner’s son, who was photographed collecting his prize in 2000, admitted that he initially lied that he bought the ticket himself in order to spare his mother the media attention.

London, Ont.: The Super 7 winner who curiously waited until nearly the end of the one-year deadline to pick up his $30-million prize in 2004 eventually settled out-of-court after a long legal battle with the woman he dumped after one last hotel room romp. The trial involved a detailed deconstruction of their torrid decade-long relationship — and the couple might have even reconciled.

Winning the lottery sounds great on the surface. But what are the odds that a scenario similar to one of these will happen to you?

Are lottery tickets a good investment? Not really.

A West Virginia man who won a $315 million Powerball jackpot back in 2002. At first he gave millions to charity, including $14 million to start his own foundation. But later, a briefcase with $545,000 in cash and cashier’s checks was taken from his car while it was parked outside a strip club. His office and home were broken into and he was arrested twice for drunk driving. His granddaughter died under suspicious circumstances and by 2007, he had spent most of his money. He told reporters, “I wish I’d torn that ticket up.

To sum up:

Sudden wealth is most likely to exaggerate your current situation, but it won’t fundamentally change your sense of well-being. The overall happiness levels of lottery winners spiked when they won but people tend to return to a set point.

But the good news is that the general mental well-being of winners vastly improved. If you feel fulfilled, you are a careful financial planner and you have strong relationships in your life, a lottery win is likely to build on those strengths.

However if you’re unhappy, you’re not good at managing money and you’re surrounded by people you don’t trust, a big win will probably make your problems worse.

Big winners ruffle spend 44% of their lottery winnings after five years, but only a few spent their entire winnings in their lifetime.

Legal gambling has a net impact on state tax revenues. There is little doubt, however, that politicians see the potential tax revenues as a key benefit. The purported beneficiaries of state lotteries rarely experience a significant increase in state government expenditures instead, unrelated expenditures increase.

Individuals are merely shifting charitable expenditures to lottery expenditures. This is because of the high level of publicity that lotteries and their intended beneficiaries receive. As a tax, lotteries are highly regressive.

Lotto’s are now camouflaged by the mass media and advertising as doing good, (“good causes”) without support or highlight any one cause in particular.

There is now a Web site ( www. the Lotto.com) who will buy your tickets world-wide so you can stay anxious and anonymous best of luck.

Powerball Lotto The mother of all lotteries. In less than 25 years it has paid out over $5 Billion dollars in first prizes.

Mega Millions Lotto is the one with the single largest jackpot in the history of North America, at $656 Million Dollars. Subject to taxation both for US citizens and non-US citizens, with the latter category taxed at a flat rate of 25%.

Euro Millions Lotto The Euro Millions Lotto is so loose, in fact, that as of January 2012, there is a permanent cap placed on the jackpot at 190 Million Euros. The second reason the Euro Millions Lotto is so popular is because winners outside of Switzerland are not subject to taxes.

Euro Jackpot designed to service countries not included in the Euro Millions Lotto.

UK National Lotto The UK National Lottery operates in this manner, advertising that the Lottery supports “380,000 … good causes… across the UK.

SuperEnalotto Italian lottery 34.648% of the revenues gathered from ticket sales are apportioned for winners.

La Primitiva Lotto Based in Spain 70% of ticket sale revenue goes into the prize.

El Gordo Lotto the most popular in Spain the win can remain secret the Spanish government allows winners to keep everything.

Are players affected by the attention media devote’s to the game? They sure are. When the jackpot increases the media attention induces players to buy more tickets.

For those of us who dream about becoming wealth the best feeling in the world is friendship.